An Unwanted Mission
by yanny88
Summary: Kakashi has a mission to Iwagakure, and he's not taking the objective very well. This is a bad memory all over again. How will he handle the mission, and will he face his dark past and overcome his fears and insecurities? Read and find out. Chapter 2 up
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Notes**: Hey everyone, here's another fanfic involving the one and only Hatake Kakashi. Of course the other characters are involved and it'll be full of drama and tragedy (gasps). I think the title of this story speaks for itself...or maybe not...you tell me. Just before I decide to hit this off loudly, I just want to apologise for my tardiness in updating my other fanfic, Under The Rain; I will have the next chapter up as soon as the exams are over. Unfortunately I'm at a bit of a stand still, but I'll get there; I'll just need some extra inspiration is all.

Kakashi: another one about me, huh?

Yan: Yeah...is something wrong?

Kakashi: no, not at all, I was just curious as to how many more stories you're planning on writing and basing on me

Yan: Just until I get sick of you I suppose...

Kakashi: ouch...that's harsh (pouts)

Yan: Nah, I'll never get sick of you; you've got character. I'm surprised they didn't name the show after you.

Kakashi: I don't really like being the main attraction to the show, and I like the spot I'm sitting in

Yan: good point...you aren't really the type to jump into the fray and be the centre of attention

Kakashi: exactly.

Yan: Anyways, enjoy ^_^

Kakashi: and we'll meet you on the other side (grins)

* * *

AN UNWANTED MISSION  
Chapter One: Reflections

"To where!?" the man demanded not too calmly.

Tsunade was a little surprised when she got his reaction to the whereabouts of this mission, "I'll say it again, Kakashi-san, you are going to Iwagakure, is there a problem with that?" she rose a blonde eyebrow at the man in question.

Kakashi hesitated for a moment before sighing himself to his normal laid-back posture, "n-no, Tsunade-sama, no problem at all."

"Good, you'll be leaving with Naruto and Sakura tomorrow morning at 9am. Now get out of my office."

No words were spoken as Kakashi made his leave, and once he closed the door, he slumped against the door, staring wide-eyed at the wooden floor, and felt his heartbeat suddenly race.

Kakashi had never felt this freaked out before; he knew why, but he just didn't want to dwell on it, for it would bring up bad memories from the past. A very dangerous past he didn't want to think of anymore.

With a reassuring sigh to himself, Kakashi made his way down the stairwell, pondering the mission over as Tsunade's words sunk in properly...

"_There is a new mission for your team, Kakashi-san," Tsunade spoke once the Copy Nin had entered the room on request._

"_What is the mission, Tsunade-sama?" Kakashi felt an uneasy aura coming from the Hokage, but he couldn't quite point out what it was._

_Tsunade cleared her throat and unrolled the scroll before her, "there is a village a few days' travel from here that plans on invading Konoha," she gave him a sceptical glance, "you've been there before, so it'll be a whole lot easier for you and the others to get the mission over and done with," she paused a moment as she read through the main objective of the mission, "we need your team to get there to investigate their motives, and if suspicions are correct, destroy their main bridge to prevent this possible uprising from occurring."_

_He had been there before? Kakashi had heard of this before, but he couldn't remember where, "to where do we have to investigate?" he asked, maintaining composure, awaiting something he knew he would regret asking soon._

_Tsunade glanced at the name of the destination and stared him dead in the eye, "Iwagakure," she said simply._

_As if the name alone was taboo, Kakashi physically cringed at the sound of it, and when he realised what he and his team had to do, he could feel his breakfast making its way north. He knew the place, and avoided it like hospitals and the plague._

"_To where!?" he demanded not so calmly…_

Kakashi shuddered, before leaving the Hokage tower and heading to his apartment. Just as he rounded the corner to his street, he ran into Naruto and Sakura.

"Kakashi-sensei, we were just looking for you," Naruto exclaimed, jumping at the sight of their sensei.

Sakura just gave the taller Jounin a cross look, "so what did Tsunade-shishou want you about?" she cut straight to the point.

Kakashi shifted his weight to his other leg uneasily, but expertly hid the awkwardness he felt about the mission, "we're leaving for a mission tomorrow morning to Iwagakure to investigate the possibility of an upcoming war," he explained.

Sakura was the first to catch onto Kakashi's slightly off behaviour, "are you okay, sensei? You seem a bit off today," she asked, raising a pink eyebrow in curiosity. Naruto, being completely oblivious to the whole thing, simply squinted his eyes childishly in confusion, "what do you mean, Sakura-chan, he seems fine to me," he wondered. Kakashi was battling it out whether to tell them why he was being so jumpy today, but he knew that would show how much he didn't want the mission, so he kept his masked mouth shut.

"Well, I'd better head off home and pack, see ya," just before Kakashi would get a retort from his former students, he vanished within a cloud of smoke.

Naruto and Sakura exchanged glances, "that was weird," Naruto pointed out. Sakura merely rolled her eyes, "come on, Sai wants to show us a new jutsu," she said as she pulled on Naruto's black sleeve toward the training grounds.

* * *

The first thing Kakashi did when he got to his apartment was his trip to the bathroom, and not to relieve himself of a full bladder. He practically tore off his Leaf headband, hearing it clink onto the tile floor and stared at his reflection.

Kakashi felt as though the world would fall apart right before him. This could not be happening. The Copy Nin had absentmindedly led himself to the bathroom to stare at his own reflection. But once he thought his mind was beginning to see someone else other than himself, he pulled himself away from the mirror, collapsing to the hard floor and panting hard.

This felt like a horrible nightmare, but why was it having such a huge affect on him? Kakashi placed his hand over his scarred Sharingan eye without realising it and took a moment to collect himself.

Never in his entire life as an elite Jounin had Kakashi lost composure about anything, so why now? Perhaps it was just nearing such bad memories he didn't want to settle on, so his body immediately reacted in the most negative way possible. With an exasperated sigh, the silver haired man picked himself up off the floor, swallowing the built up lump in his throat and headed for his bedroom across the hallway.

He crash-landed onto his bed, groaning in frustration as he did so and stared at the wooden floor of his room. He reluctantly pulled his backpack from under his bed and dusted off the dirt and days of dust bunnies and leisurely dumped it on the floor.

He got up and tossed a few clothes onto the bed and floor from his closet, meandering to his desk and sliding the drawer open to reveal a nice collection of kunai knives and shurikan. A box on his left caught his eye. He couldn't get himself to let the thought go, but he grabbed the mahogany casing, gliding his callused hand over the surface before opening it to reveal a slightly aged and very much handled stiletto. The finely shaped handle, beige in colour with a Chinese style dragon carved into the grip of the blade and sheath, with rice fields and farm lands flowing with it was covered in finger marks, dirt and his own father's blood from the day he took his own life before his very eyes. The dragon over the fields represented the power the Hatake clan had, but that was long before his family died away from age and all the wars.

Kakashi gingerly unsheathed the blade, taking the sight of the glint that still shined off the sharp blade. He slowly ran a finger along the sharp edge of the tanto and accidentally nicked his finger in the process.

The silver haired man didn't flinch, for he was used to so much pain that even a mere scratch would barely be noticed. He watched the small streak of blood trickle down his finger; his genes still strong with superiority and power. Although his clan wasn't the most superior, it was still a strong family line nonetheless. This tanto represented much of his clan, but most of all, it represented his father. Hatake Sakumo was as sharp as ever as a Shinobi, a dangerous tool in battle, but as time grew, he started to become blunt as he aged, losing his lustre, thus resulting in his demise by his own causes.

Kakashi was arrogant to call his father a fool and a coward; he still regretted it to this day, and he would never live down the day he caught sight of that awful moment.

He tightened his hold on the tanto, wishing the memories to go back to the dark areas of his mind where he would never have to think about them again. But as much as he tried to do that, those painfully sad memories would always return to haunt him.

It was as if Kakashi was destined to never be happy in his life.

Tugging his mask down, Kakashi stuck his lightly bleeding finger to his mouth, so as to not make a mess when he'd be handling his gear. Standing there with his mask left down for the time being, Kakashi ensheathed the tanto in its case and gently placed it back into its wooden box, laying it back into the drawer with the rest of his weapons and grabbed a few of said weapons and stashed them in his backpack.

"What am I going to do…?" he asked himself under a sigh, zipping up his bag and setting it next to his door and sitting back on his bed.

The man reached to his bedside table and rummaged around in the drawer and pulled out his latest Icha Icha book. Reading always calmed him down when he was distressed, and it would also pass the time he still had left before he would call it a night, so Kakashi lay back against his pillow and opened the light blue covered book to carry on reading the second chapter of the novel.

* * *

Kami knows how long Kakashi had been reading for, but it did clear his mind (though replacing it with dirty images). He glanced to his right where his clock was standing and noticed it was 10:38 pm.

With a long audible sigh, the Copy Nin set his book aside and stripped from his clothes. He stretched up as far as he could, exposed in nothing but his boxer shorts and felt a few joints click and pop and breathed another sigh. For some reason however, there was something brewing at the back of his mind, and Kakashi didn't trust it one bit. But brushing that inkling aside for the time being, the Jounin settled under the covers and was out like a light.

* * *

It wasn't the dirty thoughts of the book he had been reading before going to sleep, and it wasn't the paranoia of waking up late; he still had about half an hour before he planned on waking up. He shot upright, panting heavily and covered in sweat.

He hadn't woken up like this in such a long time; the last time he did was after the Kyuubi attack, which was twenty years ago, and it was only because Kakashi was so upset about his ex-sensei's death that he thought he saw him just before going to bed. That lasted for a few days before the late teen got to his senses and got over it.

Kakashi waded to the bathroom, still trying to get his heartbeat to slow down a little bit and ran the cold tap, filling the basin before splashing some of the water on his bare face. He inhaled sharply as the cold water trickled down his neck and over the planes of his chest. Now that he had awoken, Kakashi's memories brought him back to the nightmare he had; it was from when he was still very young, and it was mixed up with the thoughts about the upcoming mission. It was all very odd, and also very scary. Kakashi was rarely frightened by anything, but this was something that no one would ever understand, not unless they experienced it first hand or physically witnessed the events.

The silver haired man groaned, feeling rather pathetic at himself, "I shouldn't be so worked up about all this," he told himself, sighing softly as he dried off his face.

He slowly made his way back to his room to change and headed to the kitchen to grab an apple. Kakashi left his apartment without a second's thought with his bag slung over one shoulder and naturally went down one street he'd been travelling for the past twenty one or so years, but once he reached the dirt half of the trek into the forest beyond, Kakashi couldn't get himself to go any further.

Yes, it was the pathway to the memorial stone that he'd been visiting for so long, but today was different. In the early hours of the morning, the streets were vastly quiet and empty, with only the sounds of the birds in their morning song and the light breeze tickling the leaves of the trees around. This morning however, there was a strange eerie feeling amongst the trees that Kakashi just didn't like; it almost sounded like the forest was moaning, but that could've been just Kakashi's mind playing tricks on him.

As if there was someone within the trees watching him, Kakashi backed off and decided to head off to the gates, where Naruto and Sakura would soon meet up with him.

* * *

The two well-known Shinobi strolled down the main street together, where they would wait for a very tardy ex-sensei, "hey, hey, lets make a bet," Naruto bellowed, even though his pink haired friend was only two feet away.

"What sort of bet?" Sakura asked, although not liking the direction this was heading.

Naruto grinned, "I bet you 30, no, 60 Ryo that Kakashi-sensei is late again," he announced proudly, knowing full well he would in no doubt win the bet. Sakura, being as observant as ever, answered, "what's the point in betting when we both know well enough that Kakashi-sensei is always late anyway?" she looked at the blonde pointedly, awaiting a reply.

"You never know Sakura-chan, there could be a chance that he might actually be on time…" he left the rest of that statement to the imagination.

Sakura rose a pink brow at him, "yeah…that'll also be the chance when Tonton sprouts wings and flies," she spat back evenly and picked up the pace a little.

"So do we have a deal then?" Naruto enquired.

Sakura took a second or so to think about it, "deal," then shook on it, glancing at a grinning Naruto, who was smiling as if he shat himself and was proud of it.

There was momentary silence before the two made it to the last ten metre stretch to the village's main gates, and there stood…Kakashi? The duo immediately stopped and simultaneously rubbed their eyes, both believing they were just seeing things.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto wondered in disbelief.

Said Jounin looked up from reading his latest smut novel and pulled the best believable smile he could force his muscles to make and raised a hand, "yo," he said simply, before putting his attention back onto his book, trying to hide the fact that he was indeed early.

Sakura just stood there in slight amazement, "holy crap Kakashi-sensei, you're…early," the sound of the words "Kakashi-sensei" and "early" together in the same sentence was like hearing Kiba say he was allergic to dogs.

The silver haired man shrugged his shoulders, "well, this is an important mission, so I decided on showing up a little earlier than I usually do so we can head out on time for a change," he couldn't help but smirk at the look on Naruto's face. Kakashi seemed to be stared at as if there was a huge bug on his face or he'd decided to go out in public without his mask on.

After Kakashi had given out his reason, Naruto started looking up at the sky as if trying to find something, "so where's Tonton, I don't see her," he said sarcastically as he made a silly pose as if to look out at the distance, but then he became thoroughly annoyed, '_damn…_' he mentally cursed about the little bet he made earlier, slumping forward in defeat, and sensing a smart remark coming very soon.

"Well, now that we're all here, shall we head out then?" Sakura interrupted and pulled Naruto along as she ambled past the gate, waving at Izumo and Kotetsu, who were both a little tired from their night watch and mildly surprised that Kakashi was on time for a mission.

Not thirty metres out, Sakura looked over her shoulder to find Kakashi just standing there, looking a little troubled and lost, "come on Kakashi-sensei, hurry up!" she called out to him. Kakashi looked up to find his two former students way ahead of him and hesitantly went after them in his casual strides.

Sakura gave Naruto a nudge to get his attention, "hey, you noticed anything strange about Kakashi-sensei? He's been acting a little different," she wondered, glancing behind her to see Kakashi taking his time.

Naruto looked back also, taking in the older man's appearance, "y…yeah, I have, but I've decided on not worrying about it, so neither should you. This is Kakashi-sensei we're talking about here, he's a total mystery, no matter how long we've known him for," he said, giving his pink haired friend a beaming smile.

It went quiet for a while before Sakura finally nudged him again, saying, "you owe me 60 Ryo by the way."

* * *

Why did he accept the mission? Why didn't he just say he didn't want to take it? Why couldn't the ground beneath Kakashi's feet just swallow him whole the second he told the rest of his team and end it there?

Kakashi pondered over these questions, but realised he was at a great loss. The silver haired Shinobi was a proud and elite Jounin of Konoha, and he never refused a vital mission, even if it meant losing his life on a mission. Kakashi had realised as a young teenager that he wanted to protect his village at all costs, even though he wasn't made of steel and would always come back unscathed, but that was something he learned to deal with.

He realised in the end that he was just too stubborn to give up a mission, even if he didn't like the objectives or the location of his tasks.

With a sigh, the silver haired man stared blankly at the written pages of his smut novel. He had been doing this for the past half hour, and all he actually read were just a couple of words before his mind went completely blank.

Without actually realising it, Naruto and Sakura had stopped by a river to take a break. The Copy Nin hadn't really noticed himself just sitting under a tree, looking just as vague as ever. Just when he felt the light breeze brush against his masked cheek, a pale hand frantically waved barely an inch from his nose.

"Huh?" he blinked a few times, hiding the small factor that he pretty much got a surprise from Sakura trying to get his attention.

Said Kunoichi rolled her eyes, "I _said_, 'how far do we need to go until we reach our destination?'" she didn't look all that pleased when Kakashi didn't say anything, but eventually, the older Jounin cleared his throat and answered, "about…" he took in his surroundings, "a day and a half left."

All Kakashi got after he mentioned the duration, Sakura scoffed, then sighed, sitting back to where Naruto was. The blonde offered Sakura a rice ball, which she happily took and the two ate away, "here sensei, take one," Naruto offered Kakashi the box to help himself to one. The elite Jounin hesitated for a moment but finally grabbed a rice ball, "I'll be right back," the Kyuubi-bearer said briefly as he set the box down next to his backpack and took off into the nearby bushes.

There was an awkward silence between Sakura and Kakashi, and Kakashi somehow felt his former student was about to strike him a question.

"So what's going on with you today, sensei?" yep, it had to be asked, didn't it?

Kakashi played it cool, "what do you mean?" he tried to keep it as normal and casual as possible, so as to not to convince Sakura there _was_ something going on with him.

"Don't play dumb, Kakashi-sensei, Naruto and I have noticed something off with you since yesterday, so spill it!" Sakura was quickly getting impatient with the man not two metres from her.

The silver haired Jounin chuckled, hiding the slight anxiety, "well like I said this morning, I decided this was a very important mission, and showing up on time would make things a whole lot easier for all of us," '_yeah right, Kakashi, the reason why you showed up early was because you didn't want to confront that blasted stone_,' he gave the pink haired woman an eye crease before Naruto ambled from the bushes, sighing with relief.

Neither Kakashi nor Sakura wanted to know what he was doing, so neither brought up the question. That was when Kakashi got up, "I'm just gonna refresh myself a little; I'll be right back," he took off before Naruto and Sakura said something and stopped over by the river.

Tugging his mask down, the Copy Nin splashed handfuls of water from the river to his face, washing the worry away. But even though he felt somewhat relieved, there was still something deep inside, threatening him until he would literally go insane. What he was bearing was like a curse; a curse that would soon get worse as time progressed.

Gazing aimlessly into the rippling water, the stream's flow calmed and reflected the image of Kakashi's surroundings, as well as his own. Upon seeing his reflection, he saw - again - not only himself, but someone else who resembled him.

Seeing those eyes that held nothing but pride and nobility, Kakashi factually jumped away from the riverbank, his chest heaving out of fear.

"Sensei, what's wrong?" Naruto asked, having just come around to see what he was doing.

Kakashi hastily pulled up his mask and forced himself to calm down. Naruto and Sakura had seen his face before, accidentally that is. He was rather disappointed that he had let his guard down at the time; keeping Naruto and Sakura guessing as to what he really looked like was fun for him to watch. But those thoughts aside, the Copy Nin faced the blonde and attempted to get his heartbeat to go back to its normal pace.

"Nothing…I thought I saw something, but it must've been my imagination," Kakashi answered with a sigh, at the same time trying to convince himself that it was just his imagination.

Naruto rose a blonde brow at him, "you sure? You seemed as though you just saw a ghost," as a matter of fact he didn't know, Naruto was actually right about his statement, and in a way, it had Kakashi worried.

"Don't worry, Naruto, I'm fine," he smiled beneath his mask, assuring Naruto that he was fine.

The blonde haired man smiled back, "okay then," and took off, leaving Kakashi alone.

The second he was out of sight, the silver haired Jounin looked back at the river, not even daring to look at his reflection again and sighed, wondering why he was so afraid of his own reflection, and felt this was getting a little out of hand.

* * *

**Author's notes**: so how was that? I feel bad for making Kakashi the victim in this story, but then again, a story like this resolves itself. Hmm, what else is there to say? Uhm, I'll try and update whenever I can, but I won't guarantee that I will anytime soon, so I apologise. Again, humble apologies for not updating my other fanfics at the moment; I will get to it ASAP.

Kakashi: That was a short note

Yan: Yeah I know; I just don't have anything else to say.

Kakashi: Really? I always thought you had something to say.

Yan: yeah, guess I'm not overly feeling talkative at the moment.

Kakashi: so...I'm a paranoid bastard in this story?

Yan: paranoid, yes, but bastard? Heavans no. I'm trying to make sure you stay as peachy as ever.

Kakashi: oh joy...at least I'm not a self-centred ass.

Yan: you never were in my eyes

Kakashi: okay then...so...hope you all enjoyed reading about my depression.

Yan: (rolls eyes) reviews will help a lot =]


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's notes**: wow, I'm enjoying this already. Even though it's only been, what, a day or so, I feel the need to update =D. I'm actually working on chapter three at the moment, so I feel proud that I'm updating and working on the same story :P. Anyway, I've just gone over the plot in my head, and I have a fair idea this story will be between three to five chapters, more or less, depending on how much I decide to write. Thank you guys so much for the reviews, I really appreciate them. Honestly I didn't think this fanfic would be so much of a hit...guess I underestimated my own work :P.

Kakashi: That's a lot of me to write about.

Yan: Nah, I've written longer ones.

Kakashi: Two stories?

Yan: Yeah, Hard To Forget, and Under The Rain.

Kakashi: And Under The Rain isn't-

Yan: finished yet, I know...I said I was sorry about a good dozen times in the last chapter.

Kakashi: then work on it...you're exams are over, and I'm sure you've got lots of readers who are dying to know what happens next.

Yan: Good point, but then again, I'm also waiting on an update on a fanfic I'm reading.

Kakashi: Which one's that?

Yan: Simple Things. It's a really good fanfic, and the author hasn't updated since January T_T, darn cliff hangers.

Kakashi: welcome to my world.

Yan: great...anywho, hope you enjoy reading this chapter.

Kakashi: and now, off to the main event (grins).

* * *

CHAPTER TWO: EXHAUSTED

"_As a Shinobi, you must always follow the rules on any given mission, no matter what the circumstances are, you must never disobey the rules and regulations; fight on. Take this to heart…"_

"_You always care only about yourself and never consider the good things others have done for you, no matter how many times we tell you we care about you and all the times we try to save your ass, it always ends up with an asshole caring solely on the rules…"_

"_We can't go back and save Rin, Obito, the mission comes first…"_

"_You know…I was hoping…to spend the rest of my life with Rin…and you…I've always considered you as my best friend…Kakashi…"_

"_Haha, Shinobi don't cry, come here cry-baby!"_

"_Kakashi…"_

"_Kakashi-san…"_

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Kakashi snapped his eyes open at the sound of someone calling his name and reacted in a both unexpected and an unwanted way. He rolled over the moment his eyes opened, his Sharingan activated fully and kunai in hand. It was then he realised he had Sakura pinned beneath him, utterly shocked at his actions.

Kakashi was unable to speak, for he was trying to catch his breath from that dream he just came out of, "Sakura…" he managed to whisper in an almost relieving tone.

Said medic sucked in a breath, realising their proximity, "are you alright, sensei?" she asked, deep concern lacing her voice. Kakashi looked uncertain for a moment, right before noticing the position he was in, especially the kunai pressed against his former student's throat.

"Sorry," he said slowly, as if he was about to fall back to sleep.

Sakura took note of his appearance and his condition. As a medic and Kakashi's former student, she could tell a lot of things just by looking at his semi-covered face. His face was covered in sweat, and his breathing was laboured, showing he was in both discomfort and deep mental worry. Something had triggered in Kakashi's mind that caused all this to happen.

The Copy Nin blankly placed his head on the dirt ground next to Sakura's and moved his kunai from her neck, "I'm so sorry Sakura, please forgive me…" he breathed, feeling unreservedly embarrassed and worn out for a reason he couldn't pinpoint.

"It's alright, sensei, I guess you must've had a really bad nightmare," she mumbled softly, noticing only now that Kakashi was still on top of her and Naruto could wake up at any moment.

The silver haired Jounin lifted his head to meet Sakura's worried gaze and finally took his weight from atop her body and sat up, staring at the burnt out campfire; the ambers still burning red, "yeah, just a bad nightmare," he muttered under his breath, attempting to get some sense back into his mind as he placed his hand over his Sharingan eye.

"…D-do…you want to talk about it?" the former student asked, knowing well that Kakashi would refuse the offer.

And as she guessed, Kakashi didn't say anything; he didn't even look in her direction, most likely to hide his shame. It's not everyday you have an elite Jounin fall apart right before their own student's eyes and threaten them without even knowing it. Sakura could feel that there was something seriously wrong with Kakashi, and she wanted to help, but she had a feeling at the pit of her stomach that she wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway.

Kakashi lay back down, hoping to get some rest, but couldn't get that mental image of his dreams to part from him, and he feared it would haunt him again.

With a reassuring sigh, the Copy Nin closed his eyes, ignoring the slight chill in the air and fell asleep within moments.

Sakura however, was still puzzled at Kakashi's behaviour. She watched him sleep for a minute or so, watching the way he raggedly took in a breath and exhaled the same way. He was afraid of something, Sakura could tell this much already, but she didn't want to get in the way of it and cause Kakashi more mental harm, not that she intended to do so in the first place.

In all honesty, Sakura was a bit scared of what might become of this problem and hoped her ex-sensei would get better.

The sooner the better.

* * *

The blonde Jounin woke up with the same old ritual; not wanting to wake up at all. He yawned so loud it probably woke the others. He rubbed his eyes and inhaled the sweet crisp morning air. Although he wasn't really a morning person, he did enjoy the early feeling at seeing the sun rise like he would.

Looking around, he saw Sakura, still sleeping soundly, and panned his view across the burnt out campfire to where Kakashi was, and found he wasn't asleep, nor was he even around.

This would be the usual time for Kakashi to get up, most likely to check the surroundings and make sure they were safe for now. Naruto channelled his chakra senses and felt two: Sakura's and then Kakashi's…Naruto gasped. Kakashi's chakra signal was literally distorted, like he'd been going a bit insane these past few days.

This was new for Naruto, so he couldn't exactly tell what was wrong here. With a light shrug, the Kyuubi-bearer got up to wake up properly with some exercises to get his blood pumping.

Sakura felt Naruto leave, causing her to wake up. She sat up slowly, looking around the slightly foggy environment, and remembered what happened last night. Sakura sighed, checking to see where Kakashi could be at the moment and was no where to be seen. The medic frowned as she got up, stretching her arms up high and stared at the black smudge that was the charcoaled campfire remains.

"Ohaiyo, Sakura-chan," Naruto said cheerfully as he jogged back.

"Oh, morning Naruto," Sakura replied, smiling briefly before starting to walk off towards the trees.

Naruto sat down next to his backpack and pulled out three cups of instant ramen, "where are you going?" he asked, cocking his head to one side, "I'm just stretching my legs. Hey, have you seen Kakashi-sensei this morning?" she wondered, glancing over her shoulder.

Naruto scratched the back of his head in uncertainty, "nope, haven't seen him all morning, but if you find him, make sure you two return quickly because I'm preparing the ramen." Sakura nodded and took off to find her former sensei. It wouldn't surprise her if he didn't get any sleep since she forced him to wake up from his nightmare. It wasn't like Kakashi to be acting this way, so she couldn't blame herself for worrying so much.

The birds were chirping happily as the sun rose higher, and Sakura almost felt content to be walking here. Almost. That was until she found Kakashi sitting high up in a tree, staring out at the lake before him. The lake was pretty big, and there were plenty of wildlife meandering about, including the insects buzzing here and there.

Kakashi didn't notice her presence, but then again, he could've sensed her a mile away but just decided not to do anything about it. It was just like him to be so laid back.

"Are you alright, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura called out to him.

Said Jounin glanced down, his gaze distant and unreadable. He smiled, trying to hide his true feelings, "I'm fine, just thought I'd come here and check out the sunrise," his eye crease hid all unwanted emotions from Sakura, and of course, she bought it.

The medic smiled in return, "I was just curious to know because of what happened last night," she giggled nervously, as if it was embarrassing for her.

Kakashi's smile faltered as he rubbed the side of his masked face, "ehh, yeah, but can you do me a favour and not tell Naruto about what happened. I don't want to deal with the whole problem from his end of the stick," he chuckled at himself.

"Don't worry, sensei, I wasn't planning on telling him anyway, considering the whole situation," a light blush tainted her cheeks and she started walking back to camp, "oh, and you'd better hurry, otherwise your ramen will get cold."

As soon as Sakura was out of sight, Kakashi felt like jumping in the lake and drowning himself and ending it right there. He sighed audibly and rubbed his eyes before yawning loudly. The sad part of this problem was that the nightmare he had was just too intense for him, so he stayed up the rest of the night. He was very tempted to go to sleep and skip breakfast, considering it was instant ramen, but he needed to eat and stay active or he would just drop to the ground the second he stopped moving.

Jumping down from the tree, Kakashi made his way to camp where Naruto would most likely be asking questions.

* * *

The morning went by smoothly, with only a day or less until they would reach Iwa, but the unfortunate part of it all was that they were travelling extremely slow according to Kakashi, probably because he was so tired and took note of _everything _that was going on around him.

The older Jounin kept himself occupied (or he tried to at least) with his latest volume of _Icha Icha_, and it did for a while, until he felt his eyes grow heavier by the minute, '_man, why did last night make me feel so damn tired?_' he mentally asked himself. There were times where Kakashi wasn't able to sleep for days due to a life death mission, and he managed to hold out fine, but today was just one night and it felt like he'd been running a marathon in his sleep for three days straight.

Kakashi had to maintain focus for the remainder of the trip. He couldn't risk feeling tired after one night. Looking ahead, he watched his two ex-students happily talk as they travelled, but something at the pit of his stomach told him that there was something big going to happen.

* * *

Half the day passed, and all Kakashi could do was listen to his surroundings, though it was slowly putting him to sleep. Keeping his ears open, he could hear the birds singing, and the cicadas buzzing and screeching in all directions. That was when everything suddenly went dead silent. The older man stopped, as did his former students.

"You hear that, Kakashi?" Naruto warned, looking around suspiciously.

"Yeah…nothing…" the Copy Nin replied.

Kakashi listened closely and sensed enemies closing fast. All three of them were separated the instant the foes leapt in for the attack. The Copy Nin unfortunately wasn't fast enough to jump out of the way of one of the Nin's attacks, which resulted in a light cut on the side.

Checking the current situation, there were at least five ninja attacking them. Kakashi was stuck with one of them, who was rather large in size and wielded a long mace. A few kunai were thrown at the silver haired male, but he easily dodged them and countered with a flurry of shurikan and kunai. Jumping up, Kakashi threw down a kunai with an explosive tag attached.

The explosion went off and Kakashi landed in amongst the cloud of smoke and dust that erupted after the blast. Oops. This wasn't good. Kakashi was already slow as it was in his current condition, and now that there was smoke everywhere, there was no telling how bad things could get.

He sensed one from behind and jumped, missing the attack barely. In return, Kakashi rounded a kick to the adversary's face, forcing him off balance.

On Sakura and Naruto's end, they were going fairly well, although Sakura was busy trying to fend off two at once. Naruto jumped in to the rescue and knocked one clean over, "who are these guys?" Naruto asked, displeased as he received a slash to the arm after trying to block the skinny man's attack.

Sakura retaliated immediately and socked the tall one in the nose, "they're Iwa Nin by the looks of it," she responded, kicking the enemy back far enough to ready her stance, "looks like they were expecting us this whole time."

Kakashi jumped out of the dust cloud, bearing a few cuts and bruises. He landed, though not the way he was hoping. He fell off balance a bit but stood upright quickly to face the large Iwa Nin. His enemy swung the mace around like a total maniac, but thankfully Kakashi managed to dodge from it, "I have no choice but to use it," he said to himself as he reached for his headband covering his left eye. Eyeing his opponent, as to see what he would be doing next, Kakashi lifted his Leaf headband, revealing his Sharingan eye. The moment he had his both eyes visible on his enemy, he saw someone he didn't want to look at, '_NO! Not now_,' he inwardly cursed, but before he could react, his enemy punched him hard in the face, sending him flying.

He crashed to the ground hard and winced as he felt something crack. Feeling his lip starting to bleed, Kakashi looked up at the muscled man before him, who was ready to strike him down.

'_Get up, get up, GET UP!_' he screamed inside, but he couldn't move. He saw the face of his father, who had haunted him the night previous.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted, running to his aid and created a few clones to help out. Naruto stood by Kakashi while his clones made short work of the Rock ninja.

Once all the enemy Shinobi were taken care of, Sakura rushed over to see what had happened, "what happened?" she asked, standing by Naruto, who looked very unhappy at the silver haired Jounin who was sitting on the ground, breathing heavily.

"What's gotten into you?" he said harshly.

Kakashi winced again, but not at his injuries, but at Naruto's words. He never liked being scolded or getting told off, but this was different, "why the hell couldn't you take out one Shinobi?" he asked, his temper weakening at every second and his anger rising.

"Naruto, calm down," Sakura said, punching his arm, "at least we got them."

The blonde haired Jounin inhaled slowly to calm himself down, "Sakura-chan, I think I might've busted a rib," he said, frowning a little as he looked himself over and winced when he gingerly touched his side.

Sakura rolled her eyes, "okay, sit down, and I'll take a look at those injuries," she said to both males and joined them on the dirt ground.

Naruto unzipped his orange jacket and lifted his fishnet cut shirt to reveal to Sakura a bluish purple bruise, looking rather ugly at the sight, not to mention sore too. She gently placed her chakra laced hands over the dark bruise and felt the bones mending back together beneath her touch. The blonde let out a relieving sigh, feeling much better now that he could breathe without pain.

"Okay Kakashi-sensei, lets see those injuries of yours," Sakura said, shifting her gaze to the silver haired Jounin, who looked distant as usual.

"I'll go take care of those ninja, be right back," Naruto jumped to his feet and grabbed the large Iwa nin he had knocked out earlier and dragged the unconscious body to where the other four lay unmoving.

Sakura watched Naruto for a minute before returning her attention to her ex-sensei, "come on, lose the mask, I know you've probably got a cracked jaw; I can see it from here," she grinned, though not at the fact that she would see Kakashi's face, but mostly because she was right, Kakashi had shattered his jaw, which explained one of the reasons why he wasn't talking.

Kakashi let out a slow, shaky breath and slipped down his mask. There was a small streak of blood from the side of his mouth and slight swelling, but it was manageable for Sakura. The medic focused some of her healing chakra to her hands and placed them against Kakashi's jaw, causing him to inhale sharply. It was hard not to tense his jaw at the pain, but it felt like someone just placed a hot iron to his face and decided to pour salt on the open burn right after.

Not a moment sooner, the Copy Nin relaxed a little when the pain started to fade and sighed in relief when he was able to move his jaw freely. Placing his hand on his jowl, the silver haired man moved it around a bit, tensing the muscles there and flexing them until he felt a little click, and wiped the slightly dried and smudged blood from his chin.

"Better?" Sakura asked, smiling sweetly at her former sensei.

Kakashi looked at her and returned the smile softly, "thanks," he managed to say, but the second he attempted to get up and help Naruto, he remembered the nasty crunch he heard in his chest when he was fighting his enemy and sat back instantly.

Cursing, the silver haired Jounin clutched at his ribs and willed the pain away, but that was before Sakura moved his hands away, "let me take a look," she didn't sound worried at all, mostly because these injuries weren't fatal, not unless the rib snapped and pierced the lung, but that would mean Kakashi should be suffocating right now and dying.

Kakashi removed his Jounin vest and lifted his shirt, looking away so he wouldn't see the Kunoichi's reaction to the damage. He felt Sakura hiss sympathetically when she caught sight of the large dark bruise on the lower right side of the man's chest. The medic gently placed her hands over the injury, but the sudden jerk from Kakashi and his low curse under his breath startled her.

"Ow…" he groaned, rolling his lone open eye at himself.

Sakura frowned as she scanned the internal areas of Kakashi's chest with her chakra. Yep, it was a busted rib, and it was pretty nasty too. It he had been struck there again, he'd be in big trouble, as in the "instant unconsciousness" type of trouble, mostly because the delicate tissue of his lungs and the areas beneath his ribs would be hit.

"Hold still," Sakura found his movements a bit irritating, considering she was trying to heal him.

Sakura focused on her chakra; everything inside was intact, thankfully, it was just his ribs that at a good beating. With that she sighed softly and mended the bones back together.

Not a minute later, the pink haired Kunoichi had healed him completely, along with any other injuries like the cuts and slashes the man had gotten during the fight.

Just as Kakashi was about to join Naruto, Sakura placed her hand on his forearm, "try and be more careful Kakashi, whatever it is that's distracting you, you have to put that aside for now and stay focused; we don't want you getting injured like that again," she warned him. Kakashi's stern gaze softened a little, realising she was right. She sounded a lot like his father, it was only that Sakura said it in a more subtle way compared to how his father sounded. To say Hatake Sakumo was strict on safety would be an understatement.

The silver haired Jounin nodded at his ex-student, noting the seriousness in her tone, mostly because she didn't mention the _sensei _bit and made his way over to Naruto, who was just finishing up with the Iwa nin.

"All sussed?" Naruto asked, raising a blonde brow at his former sensei.

Kakashi gave a single nod to the blonde Jounin, before shifting his Leaf headband over his left eye again to conserve his chakra.

* * *

That was a turn for the worst; Kakashi felt that today just wasn't his day, and it wasn't even 6 pm yet. He sighed to himself, rubbing the area where he had recently broken his ribs. Although it was very much healed by his wonderful medic and former student, Sakura, it still felt as though it ached, but lightly.

Raising the orange book to higher to hide the fact he wasn't really reading, the silver haired man watched as Naruto and Sakura were ranting on about their favourite flavour of ramen, well, Naruto was actually the one doing so, Sakura was just listening, most likely inwardly wishing he'd shut up about now.

"Look, look, civilisation!" Naruto jumped up and down in joy like a giddy little schoolgirl.

Kakashi glanced from his nonexistent reading and saw indeed a small village up ahead and sighed again. He was now pretty tired, which was probably the biggest understatement of the year. No, Kakashi was beyond tired, now he was just plain droopy, which was hard to tell because the Jounin always looked droopy like he was on drugs or something.

Naruto turned around to face his ex-sensei, who already knew what his question would be and saved him the trouble of even asking, "no, it's not Iwagakure, but we're very close," he said, pocketing his smut novel and neared the other two Jounin in front of him, "this is a small village just off the main, used for trade and such."

"Do you think there will be any Rock Shinobi in there waiting for us?" Sakura pondered.

Kakashi narrowed his stare at the village gates and halted, "chances are they will be expecting us, hence the ninja we encountered before, so my suggestion is we best go around; it'll take us an extra ten minutes or so, but it should keep us out of sight until we reach Iwagakure's main village," he mentally shuddered at the name of the place, feeling bad memories coming back already.

Forcing the images from resurfacing, Kakashi led the team to the right, where they took to the trees and expertly jumped from branch to branch, hiding their chakra as they went. Kakashi, feeling the weight of his exhaustion finally kick in as well as starting to see unwanted flashes of his past, stopped in his tracks, '_kuso, the closer I get, the worse it gets_,' he tightened his grip on the branch above him and stared aimlessly at the ground beneath him.

"Kakashi-sensei? Is something wrong?" Sakura asked, creasing her brows together in concern.

Said Copy Nin glanced at the pink haired Kunoichi and shook his head, "sorry, thought I saw something down there, must've been my imagination," in a way he wasn't lying. His imagination was playing tricks on him, just not in that sort of way.

"Lets go," he promptly added and took off to a higher branch, leading the way.

Using their skilled ninja abilities, the three Jounins sped through the trees with no trouble at all and eventually they reached around the other side of the village, having not been seen. Yet. Kakashi felt that they were let off easy, so as much as his body was screaming at him to sleep, he forced his mind to stay focused - or he tried to at least - and kept his guard up at all costs.

Fifteen minutes had passed after they avoided the small village and Kakashi headed to the side of the road, "we'll camp here for the night," he set his bag down without another word. Naruto and Sakura exchanged glances, but said nothing against their ex-sensei's orders and set up camp.

"Don't light a fire here, it's too risky now that we're deep in enemy territory," Kakashi warned, giving his two former students a quick glare and rolled out his sleeping bag.

Naruto pulled out the cups of ramen and set them aside, "sensei, how are we gonna eat our ramen with no fire to warm up water?" he asked, frowning at the thought of missing one night without his favourite food. Sakura was inwardly hoping she wouldn't have to eat another cup of that noxious stuff, especially since it didn't even look all that appetising, let alone edible.

Kakashi sighed, "here, we'll eat these instead," he pulled a few small bread rolls from his bag and handed them over to Sakura to share around.

Naruto pouted, not really liking the idea of eating bread instead of the good filling ramen he grew up eating, but accepted them nonetheless.

Sakura knew this food wouldn't nearly last as long as the ramen would; she'd rather eat the bread than the plastic flavoured noodles. She took a bite of the bread, which was a bit stale after the trip so far, but she bit back the urge to complain. Missions always had their consequences, and not the injury part on that. No, not only that, but the food wasn't what you could call five star cuisine.

"Better than nothing, I guess," Naruto mumbled after taking his third bite.

Kakashi, not really saying much, lay back on his sleeping bag and gazed up at the night sky, watching the stars twinkle as if someone had gotten a pin and stabbed holes into a big dark blanket of darkness. It was close to a full moon now, and it shined it's lunar rays through the branches of the trees, casting light shadows to dance across his masked features.

He could still hear Naruto and Sakura talk and argue about anything that came up, probably with the lack of a warm fire to seek comfort to, or the lack of some ramen. He suddenly felt he couldn't hear them; they were just becoming mumbles and distant to his ears as he closed his lone visible eye. Within seconds he seemed dead to the world, and he was somewhat fearing what nightmares awaited him past his subconsciousness.

Kakashi felt that he would have to tell Naruto and Sakura about his problem sometime soon, but he just couldn't work up the courage to venture back into those haunting memories. He seriously didn't want to talk about what he experienced as a child and expose who he was today, emotionally that is. Telling his former students about his past would be going too far into his own trust, and he would never allow himself to live it down if they ever knew.

The thought of his own team as an early teen merged to the foreground of his mind. He willed away the memories he didn't want to think about, _again_, but they were stubborn little thoughts that didn't take off very easily.

Breathing out a mental sigh, he gave up; if thoughts of his old team kept on haunting him, so be it. Kakashi had dealt with worse things than this. There were times where he was continuously beaten when he was kidnapped in a mission, or when he had pushed himself way to far beyond his own limits and still managed to fight off an ambush and make it home. He hoped in all the little amount of sanity he had left - well that was probably getting stripped off him right now - that he would be able to get his sleep tonight, and braced himself for the mental torture.

* * *

**Author's notes**: dun dun dun! Chapter two done, yay (happy cheering in the background). I truly feel sorry for Kakashi and what he's gone through so far. It actually pains me to write about it in all honesty :(. BUT, I'm not gonna let that pull me down; I'm going to stay motivated and keep writing until I've written a masterpiece =D.

Kakashi: A masterpiece eh?

Yan: Yeah...what about it?

Kakashi: oh nothing, just wondering about your choice of words; do you really consider it a masterpiece?

Yan: I have....actually I have no idea. I suppose I would just have to ask the readers and see what they think, but I doubt it though.

Kakashi: You never know. I have to say, you write some good stuff.

Yan: yay ^_^, I feel happy again.

Kakashi: so you should (ruffles Yan's hair)

Yan: (pouts) anyway, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, that is if you ignore the sad torture Kakashi goes through here.

Kakashi: ahem...but she has a point. Reviews help her lots :)

Yan: 'Til next time ;D


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